The Art Lab Exhibition Sneak Peek

The exhibition opens completely on October 6th at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts on the UEA campus and runs right through the semester until December 23rd.

So, another exhibition with paintings depicting trees through different seasons? This is how one would imagine what this exhibition is like looking only at its seemingly simple title. Nevertheless, ‘Changing Landscapes’, as an EU-funded project, has much more to offer than meets the eye. Following the idea of a ‘lab’, the exhibition seeks to provide an interactive space for visitors to explore, at the same time develop and preserve nature through different types of arts.

Still from Wolf by Dalziel and Scullion, a film about the last wolf in Sutherland

in the Scottish Highlands

Therefore, there is no proper structure to ‘Changing Landscapes’ as an exhibition. The collection rather represents the differing perspectives of the video artists, the painters, and people from different cultures. The exhibition’s direction could very well depend on later artworks. It might take time to see all the works, but it also conveys a feeling of being lost in woodland because of its vast depth and width.

‘It seems to go back to the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui – the arrangement of objects so as to be compatible with the nature of one’s settlement.’

The first thing which greets the visitor is a doorway whose white wall is scribbled with different ideas. The room inside is constructed as a library with bookshelves and a long table which visitors are free to use. The blackboards complete the ‘academic’ atmosphere of the room, with different short recollections and/or questions written on and changed each day which turns the room into a real active study place – as if there is research into ‘theorising’ nature. And there are two corners where experimental projects are going on. Beside the Soft Landscape area where everyone could try to make an artificial grassland, there is the installation ‘From the Deep Woods’ by Lee Grandjean, comprised of oak branches and tin cans on a wooden floor which invites the visitors to step in and feel as comfortable as possible.

‘From the Deep Woods’ by Lee Grandjean

There is, however, one subtle idea that every artist contributing to the exhibition seems to agree on; that nature affects humans more than vice versa. This is strongly expressed in the brilliant short film ‘Wolf’ by the Scottish artist duo Dalziek and Scullion. They argue that, by killing the predators which endanger our lives, the balance of nature is destroyed which is shown through the disintegration of the landscape. As an idea written on the blackboard goes, ‘Landscape is nature’s print on the world’. Through their diverse approaches, the artists all call for harmony; a two-way interaction between humans and their surroundings. It seems to go back to the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui – the arrangement of objects so as to be compatible with the nature of one’s settlement. The paintings of Amazonian natives also shows how important they think of their surroundings as a place that, if exploited, could turn against them. Even in different cultures, nature is always seen as a mystery, however deeply explored. It needs not to be feared, but is not to be conquered. Lee Grandjean’s installation, continues this idea as the ‘trees’ made from kitchen objects offer a more domesticate atmosphere. Visitors should feel ‘at home’ among these landscapes as much as they are in their own houses.

“The first thing which greets the visitor is a doorway whose white wall is scribbled with different ideas.”

More could be listed about this thought-provoking exhibition, such as the lyrical abstract paintings or the video compiling local people’s recollections of the Norfolk coast, but since it is a ‘changing’ space, there will be many more works to be submitted to develop the exhibition as well as nature as a whole. Why not come, immerse yourself in the work and be part of its growth?

Originally published on The Culture Section - Norwich Tab 08/10/2012